I must be going nuts...

I'm sitting in room 217 here in the MCC. It is roomy... very roomy... too roomy, in fact. There are enough workstations here to accommodate about 20 people, and right now, I am the only person here.

A few minutes ago, I heard - very softly - Bing Crosby singing "Don't Fence Me In." When I got up, the music faded and I couldn't localize it. If the tune had been something more typical of, say, MTV, I probably would not have even noticed it, but hearing anyone sing "Don't Fence Me In" isn't something that happens exactly every day. And most certainly not here.

Well, at least it gives me something to focus upon, since the first half of this shift has been pretty slow, at least here in the interpreter "back room."

I go on console in about half an hour, and the end of the shift is just over 5 hours off. I am definitely more tired at this point in the shift tonight than I was at the same time last night.

Cheers...

Crawling time...

The second half of yesterday's shift had it's moments.

A lot of them, it seemed, and each was at least an hour long.

The loops were particularly quiet last night, which is not unusual for the pre-docking phase of the flight. Pretty much all of the details have already been coordinated, and if it hadn't been for a few exchanges to confirm and clarify that information, it would have been a dull, dull shift indeed. Only one written message was transmitted during the shift, a one-liner basically stating that no changes were planned with regard to attitudes (as in, where stuff is pointing, as opposed to how folks feel about things).

The worst three hours started at 3:18 and ended five minutes later. The desire to sleep was overwhelming, so much so that I briefly retired to the men's room to splash water on my face. Being in Texas, there is really no such thing as cold water coming out of any taps, and I think rubbing my face with the recycled paper towel did more to revive me than anything else.

The mystery of "Don't Fence Me In" was resolved when I punched up the NASA Public Affairs loop and added it to the loops I was already monitoring on my headset. A replay of the "flight day highlights" revealed that the song was actually "Back In The Saddle Again," sung by someone like Gene Autry, and it had been played as the "wakeup" tune for the Shuttle crew. It has become a tradition to wake Shuttle crews with music (a nice touch, IMO), and often the music has some significance for one or more crew members.

"Back In The Saddle Again" (and I can only claim fatigue when it comes to thinking it was "Don't Fence Me In") was played for the Expedition 3 commander, Frank Culbertson, who spent a number of years during the first phase of the ISS program as a NASA manager following several flights as an astronaut aboard various Shuttle missions. It seemed a fitting song for someone returning to space to command a station crew.

Frank was already one of the lead managers in Phase 1 when I arrived to work in Houston. Early on, I was told by some colleagues that he didn't particularly like me, as I had replaced a fellow with whom he had developed a good working relationship, but in retrospect, I tend to think it was a bum rap from the start, as we soon developed a fine working relationship ourselves and I cannot recall any difficulties along the way. In fact, I used to look forward to interpreting for him at his weekly telecons with his Phase 1 counterpart, Valery Ryumin.

Somehow, I made it to the end of the shift and home again. Today, I woke up a few minutes after noon, which isn't too shabby (certainly better than yesterday). Lee is still gone (I haven't seen her all weekend). I have two short documents to polish off, and then I think I shall have to apply myself to the grisly task of cleaning this place up: washing dishes, trashing stuff I no longer need, etc. If I am lucky, I'll take a nap in about three hours and then go back to work.

Cheers...

Car 54.106.2.233, where are you?

Wow. On the way into work yesterday, I stopped at the CompUSA in Clear Lake to check a price on an item and ended up walking out with a paid-for copy of BlackICE Defender, which had been recently recommended by a colleague. I installed it earlier this afternoon and have logged several suspicious scans already, as well as one scan looking for the NetBus trojan. As I am typing this, the BlackICE icon is flashing again, telling me that... I have just been the subject of three quick HTTP port probes.

Yikes.

Lee came by earlier this afternoon with her friend Jessica. Jessica's car was totaled earlier this morning as it sat parked in front of a friend's house. The two of them have taken off to a Celtic festival, if I caught the words correctly as Lee was going out the door.

It's nearly 5 pm, and I have to be at JSC in three hours... not enough time for a nap, but then again, I have the World's Loudest Alarm Clock, so I may try to get an hour's shuteye, starting in... about three minutes.

Cheers...